Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hazel Court

Born: 10 February 1926 Died: 15 April 2008

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Ethnicity: White / Caucasian

About: Court won a British Critics Award for her role as a crippled girl in Carnival (1946). She also appeared in Holiday Camp (1947) and Bond Street (1948). Her first role in a fantasy film was in Ghost Ship (1952). She also appeared in the campy Devil Girl from Mars and Doctor Blood's Coffin. Hazel Court wanted to act in comedy films, and from 1957 to 1958 she was in the TV comedy series Dick and the Duchess. But she continued to appear in horror movies. In 1957 she had a part in the f Court won a British Critics Award for her role as a crippled girl in Carnival (1946). She also appeared in Holiday Camp (1947) and Bond Street (1948). Her first role in a fantasy film was in Ghost Ship (1952). She also appeared in the campy Devil Girl from Mars and Doctor Blood's Coffin.

Hazel Court wanted to act in comedy films, and from 1957 to 1958 she was in the TV comedy series Dick and the Duchess. But she continued to appear in horror movies. In 1957 she had a part in the film The Curse of Frankenstein, where she gained the status of a "cult siren," partly due to her display of cleavage. In the 1957-1958 television season, she appeared in the CBS sitcom filmed in England, Dick and the Duchess, in the role of Jane Starrett, a patrician Englishwoman married to an American insurance claims investigator living in London, a role played by Patrick O'Neal. Court travelled back and forth between Hollywood and England, appearing in four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. She had parts in A Woman of Mystery (1958) and The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) among others.

By the early 1960s, Court had permanently moved to the United States. She was featured in the Edgar Allan Poe horror movies The Premature Burial (1962), The Raven (1963) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964), the last two with Vincent Price.